Eyes open. Mind still.

Get the rush here. Then give your best hours back to the work that actually matters.

Futures and options, crashes and rallies, commodities, crypto and your own listed company, in a complete market on your phone. Every company is fictional. No real money, ever.

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Built by a doctor. Shaped by behavioural science. Your daily dose of dopamine, with nothing to lose.

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Zero trackers on this site

FICT 50Fictional · live

Watching, calmly

The swap

Hooked on the thrill of trading?

Same charts. Same racing pulse. Same split-second calls. Zero rupees at risk. Swap the real-money app on your home screen for Placebo Markets.

Then close it, and give your best hours back to the work that actually matters: the career you spent years building, the skills that truly pay you, the people waiting for you. The market will still be there tomorrow. Your years will not.

Make the swap: join the beta

Placebo Markets is a practice market, not a treatment. If trading is hurting your life, Tele-MANAS is free and open 24×7 on 14416 or 1-800-891-4416.

The dose

One pill. Your daily dose of dopamine.

Open it and get the rush every trader chases: the charts, the calls, the racing pulse. Then close it and get on with your day. Nothing real goes in, so nothing real comes out of your pocket.

The green you need is here.

The trade, felt

The trade ends. Your body keeps trading.

A loss hits you in seconds. Close the position and the feeling fades. Your body is slower. Its stress response peaks about half an hour later and takes an hour or more to settle. Practise here, and your body learns the moment without the bill.

One losing tradeIllustration

The trade turns against you.

An illustration, not a measurement of you. It does not assess or diagnose anything.

Which one are you?

Six habits that keep turning up in losing trades.

Studies of real trading accounts find the same few patterns again and again. You may see yourself in more than one. Tap the line that sounds like you.

The HoperI sell my winners fast. My losers, I wait for them to come back.

What is going on

Selling a winner feels like a win banked. Selling a loser feels like admitting a mistake, so it stays open and hope fills the gap.

What it costs

Small gains and large losses. The arithmetic turns against you even when you are right more often than wrong.

How the app helps you practise

The coach measures how readily you sell gains against losses, and how long your losers stay open compared with your winners.

The AvengerAfter a loss, I have to win it back today.

What is going on

A loss pushes the mind to get back to even. The next trade comes faster and bigger, right when judgement is at its worst.

What it costs

One bad trade becomes a bad day. Chasing losses is also one of the signs doctors look for in gambling problems.

How the app helps you practise

A daily loss lock and a pause after a losing trade, both set by you in advance. The coach tracks trades opened soon after a loss.

The OvertraderIf the market is open, I should be in a trade.

What is going on

Confidence grows faster than skill. Every hour in front of a chart starts to feel like an hour that should earn.

What it costs

Every trade pays charges and a spread. In large studies, the people who traded most earned the least.

How the app helps you practise

The coach compares today’s trade count with your usual day. A commitment card caps your trades before the session starts.

The Lottery BuyerThe cheap options. One good expiry pays for everything.

What is going on

A small price with a huge possible payout feels like a bargain. The odds behind it rarely get checked.

What it costs

Most of these options expire worthless. In India’s derivatives market, most individual traders end the year with a net loss.

How the app helps you practise

The coach separates expiry-hour and pre-results option buys from your other trades, and shows what each group earned.

The ChaserI buy what everyone is talking about, after it has already moved.

What is going on

Headlines and group chats grab attention. Attention, not analysis, ends up picking what gets bought.

What it costs

You arrive after the move, often near its top.

How the app helps you practise

The coach flags entries made right after a sharp move in the same direction and compares them with your other entries.

The Giver-backI was up in the morning. By the close it was all gone.

What is going on

Money just won feels like the market’s money, not yours. So the risk goes up with it.

What it costs

Good days end flat or red. The habit hides inside winning days, so it is easy to miss.

How the app helps you practise

The coach shows how much of each day’s gain you gave back before the close.

These are habits, not diagnoses. If trading has stopped feeling like a choice, please talk to someone you trust or a doctor. Where these patterns come from →

Practise yours in the app

Inside the app

A whole market in your pocket.

Option chain and payoff
Strikes, premiums, Greeks and expiries that follow real exchange rules. Sketch a strategy and see its payoff first.
Every chart study
More than 40 indicators and studies, layered calmly on clean candlestick charts.
Crashes and rallies on demand
Call a budget-day rally or a sudden crash, write your own headline, and watch it move the market.
List your own company
Take it public, run the boardroom, announce buybacks and dividends, and watch listing day.
A full investing world
ETFs, baskets and SIPs today. Mutual funds, bonds and fixed deposits are coming in later builds.
Every cost before you trade
Charges, taxes and the move you need just to break even, shown before the order goes in.
Your whole book at a glance
Every position, every cost, and how the portfolio moved today.
Offline, saved and backed up
The market runs on your phone, your world saves safely, and you can back it up.

Beyond stocks

Commodities by evening. Crypto all day and all night.

Practise markets that keep moving after the stock market closes, with fictional instruments and simulated prices in rupees.

Commodities

Gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas and copper, in an evening session that runs after the stock market closes.

Crypto

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Zcash and more, priced in rupees and trading all day and all night, so the morning can open far from where you left it.

Crypto is highly volatile and high-risk. Practising here is not a recommendation to buy any crypto or commodity.

Market history

Thirty-four years of crashes and rallies.

Markets rhyme. The same few mistakes turn up in crash after crash and rally after rally, whatever the decade. Looking at real days is how you begin to recognise the pattern, and the app lets you rehearse days like these without real money.

Real days from 1992 to 2026, at index and asset level. Tap a day for a little more.

1992
Crash28 Apr 1992
The 1992 sell-off
Sensex fell 570.42 points (12.77%) to 3,896.89.
More
Reported in 2008 as one of only three days in two decades when the Sensex fell more than 10%.
Source: Business Standard, 25 Oct 2008
2004
Crash17 May 2004
Election-result plunge
Sensex fell 564.71 points (11.14%) to 4,505.16.
More
At the low it was down 842.37 points, and trading was suspended twice.
Source: Business Standard, 18 May 2004 · The Tribune, 18 May 2004
Rally18 May 2004
The next-day rebound
Sensex rose 371.86 points (8.25%) to 4,877.02.
More
Then the fourth-largest rise in the market’s history, on bargain buying.
Source: Business Standard, 19 May 2004
2006
Crash18 May 2006
The May 2006 sell-off
Sensex fell 826 points, then its biggest single-day point fall.
More
Margin calls deepened the fall.
Source: Khaleej Times, 2 Aug 2007
2008
Crash21–22 Jan 2008
The global sell-off
Sensex fell 1,408.35 points (7.4%); the next morning trading halted for an hour.
More
On 22 January the Nifty hit its 10% circuit at 9:55 am and the Sensex fell 2,272.93 points intraday before recovering part of the fall.
Source: Business Standard (IANS), 24 Aug 2015 · NSE press release, 22 Jan 2008 · Business Standard (PTI), 24 Aug 2015
Crash24 Oct 2008
Global crisis rout
Sensex fell 1,070.63 points (10.96%) to 8,701.07.
More
The Nifty fell 12.2%, to 2,584, amid a global sell-off.
Source: Business Standard, 25 Oct 2008
Rally31 Oct 2008
October’s last-day rebound
Sensex rose 743.55 points (8.22%) to 9,788.06.
More
Asian markets had rallied after US central bank action while local markets were shut.
Source: Business Standard, 1 Nov 2008
2009
Rally18 May 2009
The upper circuit, twice
Nifty closed 651.50 points higher; the market was shut for the rest of the day.
More
Within seconds of the open it was up 531.65 points and trading stopped for two hours. The Sensex closed 2,110.79 points higher.
Source: NSE press release, 18 May 2009
2013
Crash16 Aug 2013
The rupee slide
Sensex fell 769.41 points (3.97%) as the rupee hit a record low of 62 to the dollar.
More
The Nifty fell 4.08%, to 5,507.85.
Source: Business Standard (IANS), 16 Aug 2013
2014
Rally16 May 2014
Result-day record
Sensex crossed 25,000 for the first time, touching 25,375.63, then closed up 0.9%.
More
The Nifty rose as much as 6.2% intraday before profit-taking.
Source: Business Standard (IANS), 16 May 2014 · Business Standard (Reuters), 16 May 2014
2015
Crash24 Aug 2015
The China shock
Sensex fell 1,624.51 points (5.94%) to 25,741.56.
More
For the Nifty it was the biggest fall in six years, on fears of a slowdown in China.
Source: Business Standard (PTI), 24 Aug 2015 · Business Standard, 24 Aug 2015
2016
Crash9 Nov 2016
Two shocks in one night
Sensex fell as much as 1,689 points intraday, then closed down 1.23%.
More
A high-value currency note withdrawal announced the evening before met an overnight US election result.
Source: Business Standard (PTI), 9 Nov 2016
2019
Rally20 May 2019
Exit-poll rally
Sensex rose 1,421.90 points (3.75%) to a record close of 39,352.67.
More
For the Nifty it was the best day in more than ten years.
Source: Business Standard, 20 May 2019
Rally20 Sep 2019
The tax-cut rally
Sensex rose 1,921 points (5.3%) after a cut in corporate tax rates.
More
The Nifty rose 569 points, to 11,274, and the Nifty Auto index 9.9%.
Source: Business Standard (ANI), 20 Sep 2019
2020
Crash12 Mar 2020
Bitcoin’s pandemic plunge
Bitcoin lost more than 27% in a day, its biggest one-day loss in nearly seven years.
More
Source: Bloomberg via BusinessLIVE, 31 Mar 2020
Crash + rally13 Mar 2020
Circuit, then a comeback
Both indices fell over 10% at the open and halted; the Sensex closed 4.04% higher.
More
From its low the Sensex recovered more than 5,380 points in the same session.
Source: Business Standard (PTI), 13 Mar 2020
Crash23 Mar 2020
The lockdown crash
Sensex fell 3,935 points (13.15%) to 25,981 after a 10% circuit pause.
More
The Nifty fell 1,135 points, to 7,610.
Source: Business Standard (ANI), 23 Mar 2020 · Business Standard, 23 Mar 2020
Rally7 Apr 2020
The V begins
Sensex rose 2,476.26 points (8.97%); Nifty rose 8.76% to 8,792.20.
More
Then the Sensex’s biggest point gain ever.
Source: Business Standard (PTI), 7 Apr 2020
Crash20 Apr 2020
Oil below zero
Front-month WTI crude futures settled at −$37.63 a barrel, the first negative price in 37 years of trading.
More
The contract had closed at $17.73 the session before.
Source: US CFTC, 23 Nov 2020 · US EIA, 27 Apr 2020
2021
Rally1 Feb 2021
Budget-day rally
Sensex rose 2,314.84 points (5%) to 48,600.61.
More
Its best Budget-day gain since 1997.
Source: Business Standard, 1 Feb 2021
Rally1 Feb 2021
The silver spike
Spot silver jumped 7.3%, to its highest since February 2013, on a social-media buying frenzy.
More
It fell 8.2% the next day.
Source: CNBC, 2 Feb 2021
2022
Crash24 Feb 2022
Invasion-day sell-off
Sensex fell 2,702.15 points (4.72%) to 54,529.91.
More
The Nifty fell 4.78% as global markets sold off.
Source: Business Standard, 24 Feb 2022
Crash18 Jun 2022
Crypto winter
Bitcoin fell below $20,000, its lowest level since December 2020.
More
It was down about 59% for the year at that point.
Source: Reuters via Kitco, 18 Jun 2022
Rally22 Aug 2022
Natural gas peaks
US natural gas spot prices peaked at $9.85/MMBtu, 60% above where 2022 began.
More
By 9 November they had fallen 65%, to $3.46.
Source: US EIA, 9 Jan 2023
2023
Rally4 Dec 2023
State-results rally
Sensex rose 1,383.93 points (2.05%) to a record close of 68,865.12.
More
Source: The Tribune, 5 Dec 2023
2024
Rally3 Jun 2024
Exit-poll record
Sensex rose 2,507.47 points (3.39%) to a record close; Nifty rose 3.25%.
More
Source: PTI via Onmanorama, 3 Jun 2024
Crash + rally4–5 Jun 2024
Result day, then a bounce
Nifty fell 5.93% on results day, then rose 3.36% the next.
More
On 4 June it touched 21,281 intraday and closed at 21,885; on 5 June it closed at 22,620.
Source: Business Standard, 4 Jun 2024 · BW Businessworld, 5 Jun 2024
Rally5 Dec 2024
Bitcoin passes $100,000
Bitcoin crossed $100,000 for the first time, up more than 140% in 2024.
More
Source: Bloomberg, 5 Dec 2024
2025
Crash7 Apr 2025
The tariff shock
Sensex fell 2,227 points to 73,138 as US tariffs set off a global sell-off.
More
Intraday it was down 3,939.6 points (5.2%).
Source: All India Radio News, 7 Apr 2025 · Business Standard, 7 Apr 2025
Rally12 May 2025
The ceasefire rally
Sensex rose 2,975.43 points (3.74%), its biggest point gain ever.
More
The Nifty rose 3.8%, to 24,925.
Source: Business Standard, 12 May 2025
Rally7 Oct 2025
Gold crosses $4,000
Gold futures closed at a record $4,004.40 an ounce, the first close above $4,000.
More
Source: CNBC, 7 Oct 2025
2026
Crash30 Jan 2026
Silver’s worst day since 1980
Silver futures fell 31.4% in a day; gold futures fell 11.4%.
More
A day earlier spot silver had touched a record $121.64 an ounce.
Source: CNBC, 30 Jan 2026

Each sketch is an illustrative reconstruction from published figures, not exchange data.

The mistakes that repeat

Panic-selling the gap, at the worst price of the day.
Averaging down with leverage until a margin call decides.
Chasing the rally top because everyone is talking about it.
Shorting the V-recovery right after the crash.

Rehearse days like these in the app

The numbers

The real market charges tuition.

Of every 1,000 individual traders in equity F&O in FY26, 877 ended the year with a net loss.

Source: SEBI, 20 August 2026.

FY26 · individual F&O traders1 dot = 1 in 1,000

1,000
Picture 1,000 individual traders in equity futures and options in FY26.
821
Before costs, 82.1% of them lost money on their trades.
+56
Then costs came off. In FY26, SEBI counted 4.4 lakh people pushed from a gross profit into a net loss.
877
87.7% ended FY26 with a net loss. Most of them never had a safe place to practise.
123
The other 123 ended FY26 without a net loss. Watch them gather into a smile.

The bar that eats a profit

For traders who made money, costs took 21% of their gross profit.

For those who lost, costs made up 35% of what they lost. Individual traders paid about ₹24,800 crore in transaction costs in FY26.

Gross profit = 100

Kept 79Costs 21

Where the costs went

Where the costs went, FY26

Brokerage44%
STT27%
Exchange charges16%
GST11%
Stamp duty1%
SEBI fees1%

After a loss

Lost money and want to win it back? Take that trade here first.

The urge to trade is often strongest right after a loss. That is when people tend to double down.

Placebo Markets gives that urge somewhere safe to go: the same charts, the same pressure, no real money at stake. Play it out here and see how it ends.

And then step away. The hours spent chasing a loss are hours taken from your work, your skills and the people around you. That is where your real compounding happens.

After a loss, people tend to take bigger risks to get back to even.

Join the beta

Placebo Markets is a practice ground, not therapy, and it cannot stop losses. If trading feels out of control, please talk to a professional. In India, the government's Tele-MANAS helpline is free and open 24×7 on 14416 or 1-800-891-4416.

Sound familiar?

Life situations the app lets you rehearse.

Illustrative situation, not a real user

A software engineer in Pune
Bought weekly index options on expiry morning. By lunch the premium had melted, so he bought more.
Rehearse what expiry-day time decay does to a position, and how averaging down feels when it keeps going wrong.
A first-time investor
A year into her monthly SIP, the fund was down 20%. Stopping felt like the only sensible thing to do.
Rehearse a long drawdown in a fictional fund, and how staying in or stopping plays out.
A trader after a gap-down
The market opened far below his stop. He doubled the position to win it back before the close.
Rehearse gap days on demand, and what doubling down does to an account.

Three more situations

A student on a rally day
Sold his index fund units after a quick 4% gain, then watched the rally run for weeks without him.
Rehearse rally days as well as crashes: when to hold, when to trim, how it feels to sit still.
A shop owner and a group chat
Everyone in the group was talking about the rally. He bought on the day it made the news.
Rehearse buying after the headline, across many fictional rallies, not just one.
A retired teacher selling options
Sold options every week for "steady income". One result day took months of premium in a morning.
Rehearse event days and tail risk, on the day the market finally moves.

Long read

Your brain on the market.

Why the market grips you, what it costs your focus, and the simple techniques with the best evidence. Every claim sourced.

Read: Your brain on the market

SurpriseDopamine neurons signal the gap between expected and actual reward.
Attention residuePart of your attention stays with an unfinished task after you switch away.
If–then plansA medium-to-large effect on reaching goals, across 94 tests.

Built for the hardest part of trading

The hardest part of trading is not the chart. It is the urge.

Placebo Markets was designed by a doctor who studies habits and impulses. It helps you notice the pull, see your patterns and practise slowing down, in a market where mistakes cost nothing, so the rush stays here and your focus goes back to your work. It is training, not therapy.

Questions

Is this real trading?

No. Every company, price, fund and headline is fictional, and any resemblance to a real company is unintended. You can never deposit or win real money.

Is this investment advice?

No. Placebo Markets teaches how markets and habits work. It never tells you what to buy or sell in the real market.

Who is it for?

Adults who want to learn investing, practise futures and options, or test their discipline before risking real money. Students and educators too.

Is it only about crashes?

No. Rallies get equal time: budget days, rate cuts, election results and breakouts, alongside crashes. Each is fictional, and you can pause and replay it.

Does it cover commodities and crypto?

Yes. Fictional gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas and copper trade in an evening session, and Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Zcash and more trade all day and all night, with simulated prices in rupees. Crypto is high-risk in real life, and practising here is not a recommendation. In India, crypto income is taxed at 30%, losses cannot be set off, and 1% tax is deducted at source above set limits.

All questions →

Keep the rush. Lose the losses.

Get your thrill in a few minutes here, then go build something that lasts.

Your next mistake can be free.

The beta is opening in stages. Leave your email and we will write when your invite is ready.

Get the rush here. Then give your best hours back to the work that actually matters.

Hooked on the thrill of trading?

One pill. Your daily dose of dopamine.

The trade ends. Your body keeps trading.

Six habits that keep turning up in losing trades.

A whole market in your pocket.

Option chain and payoff

Every chart study

Crashes and rallies on demand

List your own company

A full investing world

Every cost before you trade

Your whole book at a glance

Offline, saved and backed up

Commodities by evening. Crypto all day and all night.

Commodities

Crypto

Thirty-four years of crashes and rallies.

The 1992 sell-off

Election-result plunge

The next-day rebound

The May 2006 sell-off

The global sell-off

Global crisis rout

October’s last-day rebound

The upper circuit, twice

The rupee slide

Result-day record

The China shock

Two shocks in one night

Exit-poll rally

The tax-cut rally

Bitcoin’s pandemic plunge

Circuit, then a comeback

The lockdown crash

The V begins

Oil below zero

Budget-day rally

The silver spike

Invasion-day sell-off

Crypto winter

Natural gas peaks

State-results rally

Exit-poll record

Result day, then a bounce

Bitcoin passes $100,000

The tariff shock

The ceasefire rally

Gold crosses $4,000

Silver’s worst day since 1980

The mistakes that repeat

The real market charges tuition.

The bar that eats a profit

Lost money and want to win it back? Take that trade here first.

Life situations the app lets you rehearse.

A software engineer in Pune

A first-time investor

A trader after a gap-down

A student on a rally day

A shop owner and a group chat

A retired teacher selling options

Your brain on the market.

The hardest part of trading is not the chart. It is the urge.

Your next mistake can be free.